


hear my call

by the_crownless_queen



Series: Sapphic September 2018 [1]
Category: Disney - All Media Types, Moana (2016), The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/F, First Meeting, SapphicSeptember, SapphicSeptember2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-07 01:14:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15897915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_crownless_queen/pseuds/the_crownless_queen
Summary: When Moana's foot gets stuck in the coral, the rock is too far for her to reach. Luckily, a certain mermaid is close by.





	hear my call

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sapphic September, Day 1: First Meeting.  
> You can find the prompt on tumblr using the tags #sapphicseptember and #sapphicseptember2018

Ariel is out collecting seashells when she hears it. A scream, warped and almost unintelligible, echoing through the water.

It’s a _human_ scream — no merperson would sound like this, as though they were choking on _something_ — and Ariel’s heart lurches. She’s heard those screams before. Not often, but _enough_.

Enough to know that whoever is making those sounds probably doesn’t have long until they just stop making sound.

Until they die. It’s what humans do when they’re underwater. Ariel doesn’t pretend to understand why, but she just knows that’s what happens.

There aren’t supposed to be any humans around here. That’s the only reason her father agreed to let her wander off toward these waters despite her young age, because he trusts her against the dangers of the ocean but not against the humans who killed his wife.

He’d meant for it to be a distraction from her usual fascination with humans, undoubtedly, and Ariel has to admit, even if just to herself, that it has kind of worked.

These waters are so different from the ones around the palace that she could spend weeks exploring them and not get tired of it.

Even if she hasn’t seen hint of a human until now.

The human screams again, and something inside of Ariel’s mind sharpens, crystallizes.

She can’t just float there, doing nothing — or worse, gathering seashells — when somebody might be dying just a few tail swishes away.

* * *

Moana’s lungs are burning. How long has she been underwater already — one minute? Two? Longer? She’s not sure how long she has left, and it is maddening _(terrifying)_ to see that the surface is so close, practically an arm’s length away.

But with her foot still painfully wedged in the coral, that arm’s length might as well be a mile.

She cuts her palms on the coral around her and her eyes burn from the salt in the water as she looks for anything that might help her get free, but she doesn’t let the pain distract her.

Her fingertips finally — _finally_ — brush against what feels like a loose rock she can use and she nearly lets escape a too precious breath of relief.

But the rock is too far away for her to reach and all her efforts only seem to push it further away.

She groans and pushes further, straining her fingers as far as they will go, even if it hurts — she _needs_ that rock. She can’t just die here, die _now_.

But the rock remains frustratingly out of her reach, and she’s starting to see black spots gathering in her vision.

She groans through gritted teeth again, but all that seems to do is let a few bubbles escape her lips. The black spots are spreading quickly, and it’s like her arms won’t answer her anymore.

She makes one last feeble attempt toward that rock, but her hand falls short.

The last thing she sees before the black overtakes everything is a flash of red. She could swear it’s hair.

_Impossible_ , is the only thing she has the time to think, and then her eyes close.

* * *

At first, Ariel thinks all of her hard work was for nothing. The human girl — and seeing two legs where a tail should be will never get _not weird_ — is heavy to drag, and freeing her leg from the coral it had been trapped in hadn’t been easy either. And that’s without mentioning the barrier reef she’s had to cross to get there.

She hates to think that she’d had to hurt that reef too, but at least the reef will heal. The girl wouldn’t have, she doesn’t think.

Ariel’s never swam with anyone like this before. She doesn’t think she likes it much, and she’s glad when they finally reach the beach and she can start hauling the girl onto the ground instead.

Her tail flaps uselessly against the sand and she winces. She can already tell that getting all the sand out of her scales is going to be a pain, even though she’s technically _still_ in the water — but it will be worth it if she’s saved that human.

She’s not really sure what to do, though. She’s brought the girl to the surface, and she’s tilted her head to the side with her mouth open, but it doesn’t look like it’s done anything.

Ariel’s about to try to shuffle closer — “This would be so much easier underwater,” she grumbles to herself — when the girl’s entire body jerks and spasms.

Ariel barely has the time to spring back before the girl spits what is a truly impressive amount of water, coughing something awful.

Ariel considers going fully back into the water now — the girl’s certainly safe, and she’s distracted enough that she probably won’t notice Ariel slipping away — but something holds her back.

She is… curious.

* * *

Air. Sweet, sweet air feels her lungs, and Moana can’t get enough of it. She gasps and coughs, spitting out salt water that makes her want to throw up.

She feels wet sand underneath her fingers, and that’s when she finally realizes that she’s back where she started, on the beach.

But she’s not alone.

“Hi,” says a girl that has to be impossible, “I’m Ariel. Are you alright?”

Moana just blinks and gapes. “You — You — Tail?!”

The girl — Ariel, her brain supplies helpfully — looks down. She chuckles. “Oh, right — I guess if we didn’t know there were humans here, it makes sense you don’t know about merpeople either,” she mutters, and Moana is quite sure she’s not supposed to hear that.

“Am I dead?” she finally blurts out, because that’s the only way any of this makes sense.

But Ariel only shakes her head, wet red hair flying everywhere. “No, no, no — I saved you!” She gestures at the laguna beside them. “See? I found you underwater and I dragged you here.” She frowns. “Why were you underwater?”

“I was trying to sail beyond the reef to find fish,” Moana replies tonelessly, stunned. _A mermaid… saved her?_ “But my boat capsized.”

Ariel nods like Moana’s explanation makes perfect sense.

Belatedly, Moana realizes that she hasn’t introduced herself, nor has she answered Ariel’s earlier question, and she flushes red. “I’m Moana,” she says. “And I’m fine, I think. Just tired.” She smiles. “Thank you.”

Ariel smiles back and, oh, _oh no_. She’s _pretty_ — the sunlight is making her air shine like nothing Moana’s ever seen, and her eyes are so green that Moana could get lost in them.

_This is bad_. _Very bad,_ she thinks as Ariel waves away her thanks with a slightly sheepish smile.

She’s _doomed_.


End file.
